By Matthew Brown, Date: 2/7/14
In the last few months we’ve seen International Rugby League flourishing in all parts of the World! No I’m not talking about just the North of England, the F3 from Brisbane to Sydney and Auckland, I mean ALL AROUND THE WORLD! Here are a few snippets of news from around the globe from Rugby League!
Canada
Rugby league is blossoming in Canada once more! The Ontario competition (East Coast of Canada) was played and featured a 6 round competition with a final to round out the competition. The Champions were the Toronto Centurions who defeated the Branford Broncos 46-16.
On the other side of the country in British Columbia, the British Columbians had been put in charge of the U/19 National side to compete in the first inaugural U/19s Commonwealth Games 9s tournament in Glasgow (More on this later). They recently had the inaugural BC 9s RL tournament where the Whistler Wildcats were the winners. The British Colombian domestic competition is yet to be finalized.
For the International schedule the Canadians have already lost their first game against the British RAF (British) RL team 40-18. They play the English Lion hearts, Jamaicans and a home and away 2 match series against the Americans in Toronto and America.
USA
Things are going along as usual for the Americans, at least in the USARL. After 5 rounds the Jacksonville Axemen are dominating the new Southern Competition while the North Atlantic Group are dominated by the Northern Virginia Eagles and in the North Eastern division the Boston 13s are leading their division. In further good news the NZ Police look to be touring and playing the USA national team and against a USARL select XIII in Florida in August.
The AMNRL however have been silent, there are no domestic fixtures for their clubs this year, however there seems to be an international between the Samoan and USA national teams in Hawaii in July. There will be a NSW Country vs Hawaii all-stars RL game before kickoff.
Jamaica
The Jamaicans recently hosted the BARLA (Amateur) U/23 side in June. The British played several fixtures and defeated Jamaica B 78-4, Hurricanes (Jamaica’s only semiprofessional RL team) 48-10 and Jamaica A 66-20. In between each game the British conducted training sessions at local Jamaican schools and even donated kits to local teams as well.
Africa
More good news coming out of Africa as several nations look to be spreading the Rugby league gospel across the continent. Sierra Lionne have become involved in Rugby League and look to start up local competitions in schools and club level. Ghana are hosting the Great Britain Pioneers and will play 3 internationals against the British side. The tour will also include training sessions from the Pioneers to local Ghanaian teams and schools.
South Africa seem to have a busy 2014 as well. They seem to have a Tri Series later in the year against the UAE and Lebanon in Abu Dhabi in October/November. Their student team will play host to the Australian and British University students (September/October) along with the national team playing against the British community Lions in November/December. In more good news the South Africans sent an U/19s side to the Commonwealth 9s in Glasgow in June of this year.
More information about this tournament will be covered in the next blog!
